W.O.W stands for Women of Worth, a ministry of Kampala Foursquare Church. WOW explores with women what it means to be “blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ” as described in Ephesians 1.

 Women of worth …. of the Word…of wisdom….of worship….of witness …Just by using the acronym the women discover more and more about their purpose and true identity in Christ. Turn WOW upside down and MOM spells out the practical challenges of their everyday existence.

Many of the women are widowed because of the war in northern Uganda or in the countries from which they have fled as refugees – Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Sudan. Others have simply been abandoned. All of them face the challenges of feeding, clothing, sheltering, educating and keeping healthy their children and often the orphaned children of a relative, without any means of support. They are the urban poor of inner city Kampala, wondering where the next meal will come from and worrying if they will face eviction at the end of the month.

 As women were drawn to the church, they grew in unity through their faith and fellowship, and began sharing the challenges of providing for their families. Together they began some income generating projects. The women first began catering parties to raise funds. They were able to get the funds they raised matched. That money purchased for them a peanut-grinding machine with which they began making and selling peanut butter. They shared their skills; one woman taught the others how to tie and dye material. Those that could sew fashioned beautiful African wear for sell. They learned to silkscreen T-shirts and how to make candles. Others designed patchwork aprons and handbags from leftover tailoring material.

Bead making turned out to be the most profitable of all their endeavors. With tiny glass beads and rock crystals they began. Their excitement grew as they discovered other types and colors of beads and designs to make.

 Paper beads come from recycled papers that the women find. Each paper must be marked and measured for cutting, carefully cut to the right size and shape, tightly rolled, glued and varnished. After drying they are strung into necklaces, bracelets and earrings. It is labor intensive and time consuming but the capital needed is negligible.  

As important as earning an income is learning how to handle money wisely. This is an area WOW tries to address by encouraging women to open savings accounts and teaching principles of tithing and budgeting.

When women come up with plans for starting there own small businesses, WOW has strategized with them and assisted with capital depending on the feasibility of the idea and their involvement with WOW. Not all have been successful, but through each endeavor something of value has been learned. Business success is not the goal of WOW as much as putting Christ at the center of our lives.

 What truly speaks of the value of WOW to the lives of these women is seeing them go out on their own initiative and start other groups. One refugee woman returned to Congo and within two months time had a WOW group of 60 women organized. Others have visited village churches teaching candle making. Those groups now make more candles than KFC ever did! Another woman, from her earnings with paper beads has bought a 2 acre plot and starting a church in her home area, a camp in northern Uganda of people who have fled run their homes in fear of the rebels.
 

More and more the women are looking beyond meeting their own needs to how they minister to others with money they have raised as WOW. They recently took 50 young girls on an overnight outing to an island in Lake Victoria. As the girls opened up with the problems and questions the women spoke to them straightforwardly on sexual issues and living Christ centered lives in the confusing world around them. It was such a success that they plan to hold 3 such gatherings a year. There have been outreaches to rural villages also which are growing in popularity 

What a joy that in the name of Jesus we have a way of helping those who are living desperately on the edge of nothing to find hope in what they can do with their own hands!  Each shiny paper bead, transformed from a bit of trash is a symbol of what Jesus, at work in their lives, has done for them. “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Harriet, the one with the big smile next to the yellow glue bottle, is one of the women in WOW who has learned to make paper beads. Now she is teaching others. All the young girls at the table are unwed pregnant teenagers in a crisis pregnancy center where she goes to share the skill she has learned.  She herself was abandoned by her husband and raises her two children alone. Now she shares the hope she's found in Jesus.